Hephaestos and the automaton Picture

The Greek fire- and blacksmith god Hephaestos is to me (and with a bit of a stretching of mythology) the ultimate steampunk icon. And since I've become quite enamorated by the steampunk lore and style I thought it would be obvious to illustrate Hephaestos in a steampunk setting.

Hephaestos was the inventor, manufacturer and quartermaster of Olympos. He created everything from delicate jewellery for instance for his wife Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love over to killer weapon for his brother Ares - god of war and his cousin Achilles.

One of Hephaestos' many inventions became the Automatons, artificial female-looking machines who could do all kinds of tasks. They became his servants. Robots for those who want to use a more common word. And what I have chosen to illustrate is when Hephaestos has finished his first prototype.

Mythology held him for limping and ugly, but I think these disadvantages have more to do with a fact that he simply didn't care about his looks. He didn't have the time